The terrifying abduction of Leiby Kletzky has drawn eerie comparisons to that of 6-year-old Etan Patz who disappeared more than 30 years ago under similar circumstances.
"The truth is that the evil that lurks out there still exists," said attorney Stuart GraBois, who has worked closely with Etan's family since he went missing in 1979.
"While people are much more aware of the dangers now, it is still scary out there."
Etan vanished in May 1979 as he walked from his family's SoHo apartment to his school bus stop two blocks away.
His disappearance led to a national movement to solve child abductions - with his picture being the first ever featured on the back of a milk carton.
The most direct parallel between the Etan and Leiby cases is that both occurred during the first time the boys had been allowed to walk alone in the street.
"That hit me immediately when I read the story this morning," GraBois said.
A key difference is that Etan's body was never found, while 8-year-old Leiby's dismembered remains were discovered Wednesday in a Dumpster and in the apartment of a man eyed as his killer.
Levi Aron has been taken into custody and police say he has made self-incriminating statements. But no one has ever been charged in Patz's disappearance.
That may soon change.
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance reopened the Etan Patz case last year after a jailhouse informant said convicted child sex abuser Jose Antonio Ramos - a friend of Patz's baby-sitter - had confessed to the killing.
Etan was declared legally dead in 2001. His parents, Stanley and Julie Patz, won a wrongful death suit against Ramos in 2004.
Ramos remains jailed in Pennsylvania after being convicted of molesting an 8-year-old boy. He is due out in November 2012.
I believe Etan Patz was also jewish.
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